A former Amherstburg councillor believes the town 'dropped the ball'.
Jason Lavigne was a member of council when the town made the switch from its own police force to Windsor police.
Lavigne was one of two councillors who opposed the move in 2018 and says council was made aware at the time of the decision, Amherstburg would never have representation on the Windsor Police Services Board.
"We knew this from the beginning and shame on any member on council who was around during that process saying those things," says Lavigne.
As heard on AM800 news Tuesday morning, Amherstburg announced it's ending discussions with Windsor over renewing its policing agreement after Windsor city council said "no" to Amherstburg's request for a representative on the police services board with a voice and a vote.
Lavigne says Amherstburg officials knew there would never be representation and feels now they're acting surprised.
"We knew this, those of us involved told the public this, 'there would never be representation on the board' and still we got a mayor, a deputy mayor, a bunch of people acting as though, they're all surprised by these decisions and now they're I don't know kind of acting as though, 'they're taking their ball and going away with it, they're not going to play the game anymore' but that's not the case at all," says Lavugne. "Amherstburg dropped the ball a long time ago here."
He says he sat on the town's police board for four years and feels Amherstburg residents received the short end of the stick with the deal.
"Amherstburg was the safest community in Canada 2011, 2012, 2013, one of the safest communities in Canada for three consecutive years after that," he says. "We had one of the lowest budgets in Ontario. We were the first police force to introduce body worn cameras full time and it was a success story."
Lavigne feels change is needed in Amherstburg.
"You know where we dropped the ball, is we let administrators run the show," says Lavigne. "We have councils that are just blindly following administration, hiring them on as experts and everything they say is the law and they're not leading the way anymore."
Amherstburg was in negotiations with Windsor after it was told earlier this year that the city would be ending its policing deal with the town when the current contract expires December 31st, 2028.
The city has cited rising costs for its decision.
Windsor has been providing policing in the town since January 2019 after Amherstburg council voted to approve a 20-year contract with the city and disband the former town police service.
Under the terms of the original agreement, an 18-month notice of termination must be provided, but the agreement would not end until the current renewal expires, which is Dec. 31, 2028.
In February, Lavigne said "he knew it wasn't a good deal from the start."